Page 6 of Gone Hunting

My body heats with embarrassment. Great, another groupie in the making. “This is our territory and where we’re most known,” I say, trying to downplay my family’s epic heritage, even though it’s far from the truth. Thanks to my early freakishchange,my already famous family is now world-renowned.

“Your territory?” she asks.

“That’s right,” I say, shaking off what remains of my awkwardness.

“Where?”

“What do you mean?” I crouch deeper, trying to see her face. All I catch are glimpses of skin. “Why are you so muddy?”

She waits, as if debating what to say. “I spent the night here. I was hungry and trying to catch some fish. I, ah, wasn’t very good at it.”

That doesn’t sound right. I caught my first fish when I was three and I wasn’t even trying. Being a predator, one with such a strong sense of magic permeating from her skin, she should be able to fend for herself.

“What are you?” I ask.

Her voice grows quiet. If I were human, I’m not positive I’d hear her. “Just tell me where I am. Please.”

“Um, sure.” I turn back around, when I hear the familiar sound of paws striking the earth. My friends are closing in, maybe a few miles out at best. My brow furrows when I catch another nasty whiff of that festering stench I smelled earlier. But as I turn back to the timid female, the stench dissipates and so does everything else. All that’s left is her.

“We’re on Mount Elbert,” I clarify. “About ten miles from the closest highway.”

Her pause is so dramatic it seems to still the air around us. “Where’s Mount Elbert?”

“Lake County,” I offer, wondering why she sounds confused.

She releases a shaky breath. “And where exactly is Lake County?”

“Leadville,” I reply. “Colorado.”

The pace of her breathing increases. “I’m in Colorado?”

“Where else would you be?” I ask.

“New Jersey.”

I bark out a laugh. “Why would you want to be in that garbage dump?”

She groans. “It’s my home.”

“Oh. Sorry.” I push down the brambles, avoiding the thorns as best I can to better see her. All I catch are the body parts she clearly doesn’t want me looking at. She scrambles to the left where the overgrowth is at its thickest.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Trying to see you,” I say. It seems odd to have to explain myself this much, and even more strange for her to be so guarded.

“I think you’ve seen enough,” she replies stiffly.

“Come on,” I say, laughing. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a naked female.”

“I’ll just bet, big boy,” she snaps.

“What do you mean?” Whoa, she’s pissed. “My kind and Ichangeall the time in front of each other.”

“Great. Of all the places I could have been zapped to, I get sent to a nudist colony in Colorado.”

“This isn’t a nudist colony.” I swipe my mouth, choking back another laugh. “And I meanchangeform, not change clothes.”

“Huh? Oh. You mean transform.”

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